Odd Bits

Squeeze This!

May 17, 2012

I know it’s hard to believe, but even history bloggers sometimes think about something other than history.  We knit, canoe, wrestle bears, feed people, drink whiskey, and play with the cat.* Whenever we get the chance, My Own True Love and I pull on our dancing shoes and two-step and waltz to a Cajun band. [...]

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History Carnival #108-April, 2012

April 1, 2012

Image from the Library of Congress Collection Welcome to the Carnival!* In the spirit of April 1st, I’ve sought out blog posts from the last month** that celebrate the foolish, the topsy-turvy, and the quirky.  Blog posts that stand historical truths on their head, or at least gives them a little shake.   No clown noses. [...]

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When Is A Pirate Not A Pirate?

March 21, 2012

When he’s got a license to steal. From the 16th through the mid-19th centuries, governments issued licenses, called letters of marque, to private ship owners that gave them permission to attack foreign shipping in times of war.  Called privateers, these government-sanctioned pirates were an inexpensive way for governments to patrol the seas.  Private investors outfitted [...]

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William Howard Russell, Special Correspondent to the Times

January 5, 2012

William Howard Russell, “Special Correspondent for the Times”, was the original war correspondent. His unexpected career began in the Crimean War. As Russell later wrote, “When the year of grace 1854 opened on me, I had no more idea of being what is now–absurdly, I think, called a ‘War Correspondent’ than I had of being [...]

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Estonia’s Singing Revolution

January 1, 2012

Most revolutions have a symbolic moment that defines them:  the Boston Tea Party, storming the Bastille, Gandhi’s march to the sea.  In Estonia, the struggle for freedom from Soviet Russia began on June 10, 1988, when 300,000 people stood up and sang. After two hundred years of control by Tsarist Russia, Estonia became an independent [...]

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Word With a Past: How Did Germany Become the Hun?

December 27, 2011

The original Huns were a tribe of nomadic horsemen from Central Asia who rode fast and fought hard.* When they reached Europe in the second half of the fourth century, the Huns triggered a mass migration of Germanic tribes that contributed to the fall of Rome in the fifth century.  Under the leadership of Attila, [...]

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Lest We Forget

November 11, 2011

              It’s Veterans’ Day. Buy a poppy. Thank a veteran for serving his country. Pray for peace.

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Wonders & Marvels–and me!

October 19, 2011

For those of you who don’t know it, Wonders & Marvels is one of the best history sites on the web.  Holly Tucker, the author of Blood Work, has put together a lively community “for curious minds who love history, its odd stories and good reads”. In addition to book reviews and guest posts by [...]

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Columbus Sails the Ocean Blue

October 12, 2011

Columbus Day is a problematic holiday.  Schools and government offices close, but most private businesses do not.  There is no public or private celebration.  For many of us, the only impact is the realization that there was no mail delivery, so the book we’re expecting didn’t come.  Dang it. For those of us who study [...]

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The Birth of the Boy Scouts

October 8, 2011

In the summer of 1899, no one would have pegged Colonel Robert Baden-Powell as a potential military hero.  He had spent the first twenty years of his army career in small colonial wars in Afghanistan and Africa, involved more often in map-making and scouting than in battle.   When he wasn’t spying, he spent his time [...]

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